Week ending Jul 26, 2012

Obviously we got into McBride on Friday morning to post our blog for last week. We picked up some mosquito repellant stuff (a couple of cans of good muskoil type and two sets of coils). Some folks from McBride who were camping at the rec area told us that they burnt coils just inside the door, with the door and windows opened to the screen for ventilation. This would keep mosquitoes from coming in the door every time it was opened. We found out later that worked okay, but weren't really comfortable with the vapors in the trailer. We picked up some chips and cheese sauce and a few gallons of water. Then we went to the Beanery 2 to have lunch and post last weeks blog. The meal there was quite good, and the charge for the internet was only 1.50. After lunch, we drove back to the rec area. We stopped at the Goat River rest area to take a few pictures, and we stopped just short of our rec area, to walk down to one of the small lakes near us. When we got back to the trailer, we had a bit of a challenge finding a satellite signal, but were finally able to get one by placing the satellite dish right down at the edge of the lake, on a bit of peaty area that settled a bit every time I stepped too close to the tripod legs. A bit of effort for a few hours of TV a day (only when we have the generator running), but remember, this is home, not a camping vacation.

On Saturday, we took it easy around the campsite. We walked up the hill to the highway, to see how long it would take Joan to walk up (8 minutes) to stop any traffic coming down the hill, since the access road isn't big enough to share with another vehicle. We talked for a while to our neighbours, a couple with a one year old from Prince George who were out for one day. He told us that a friend had lost traction going up the access hill, pulling a tent trailer. That made me (John) a bit concerned. After we described what were doing in our retirement, he told us about SPOT Satellite GPS Messenge Service, (http://www.findmespot.ca/en/index.php) a facility that would let us notify people where we were located, even without cell service, or call for help in an emergency, particularly in a location like the rec area, where there is no cell service. We told him that we weren't usually far enough from a highway, or at least a reasonably well traveled road, for it to be an issue.

In the afternoon, John went for a bit of a dip in the lake, with a floater. He paddled back to the edge of the lake behind the trailer, but, as Joan had warned, the bottom was quite muddy there, so we had to rinse off his swimsuit before hanging it up to dry.

Then we set up the tarp that we had bought in Stewart so that the generator was sheltered. It was a bit of a makeshift deal with a concrete block on one corner on the picnic table, the middle over the generator tied to a tree at the edge of the site, the second corner tied to the ground with a tie-down and a 6 inch screw that is usually used for the satellite dish. The other two corners were tied to the ladder at the back of the RV, and the other to the door railing of the RV. This kept the generator nice and dry during the bit of rain in the evening.

It rained a bit overnight, but by the time we started packing up on Sunday morning, the weather had improved. We were happy that our first 3 day 'back country' camping stretch without any services had gone fairly smoothly until we had a problem running the living room slider in. It would start a bit, but not go too far. After trying the manual crank method, and running into the same problem, I decided to see if there was something between the slider and the floor that was causing it to stop. I couldn't see anything, but there was a bit of gravel that came out as I ran my hand along. We dug out the broom and brushed as much out as possible. Then I leaned on the slider as Joan run it in, and, voila, it worked. Phew! 

Then Joan walked up the hill to stop any traffic from coming down. After the appropriate time, I put the truck in 4-wheel drive, for the second time on the trip, and easily hauled the trailer up the hill. We were planning on heading for Valemount for the night, but decided to go the KOA in Hinton instead. We stopped and took a few pictures at Mount Robson and had a quick lunch. Back when I was young, my father and grandfather had a 'thing' about pictures of Robson. One, (I can't remember which) always got pictures of it with cloud on the top, and the other always had a clear view of the peak. 

After a quick lunch, we headed on through Jasper. We took advantage of the people along the way stopped to look at animals in the Park. We got shots of a couple of elk, 

and where even lucky enough to see quite a herd of mountain sheep, including a baby, at Windy Ridge (Joan has a drawing of mountain sheep at Windy Ridge done by a native lady). 

We then arrived in the luxurious setting of the Hinton/Jasper KOA, splurging with all of the services (except a swimming pool) after our 3 days with no utilities. Shower time!

Before lunch on Monday, we drove out to check out the campgrounds and facilities in William Switzer Provincial Park. Only the A loop in Gregg Lake Campground had sites that looked like it would handle the trailer. These sites were heavily treed, so there would be no possibility of getting a satellite signal. We picked up a few items from Hinton, and headed back to the KOA, in the rain.

Tuesday morning, we got up early, and were able to pack up without getting too wet. We decided to drive to the Bow Rivers Edge campground in Cochrane. The drive got a bit wet in several places. We actually saw a few animals. Just past Hinton, a bear started sauntering across the north section of the 4 lane highway. Once it got into the median, it started hearing traffic getting close (well ahead of us), so it loped in front of the traffic heading east, and made it into the bush on the south side of the highway. We tried, but it is tough to get a picture of a moving bear. Somewhere south of Drayton Valley, we saw a few deer with some nice antlers grazing on the fence line. We didn't get a chance to slow down enough for pictures, due to the traffic behind us.

We had a bit of an experience in Rocky Mountain House. We stopped at one gas station for diesel, and managed to squeeze out about 8 cents worth. The attendant didn't think that any of the other diesel pumps would work, so we drove across the street to another station. This one had a sign saying it was out of regular and plus grade gasoline, but it did have diesel. Then, we carried on to Cochrane, and booked into the campground for a couple of weeks to get a good start on watching the Olympic Games from London. They don't have internet access today, but are expecting new equipment to arrive any day.

The internet equipment arrived on Thursday morning, so we were able to update the blog. 

Week ending July 19,2012

We started the trip to Prince George on Friday by stopping at the free power wash in Fort Telkwa to blow a layer of bugs and dirt off the trailer and truck. It is a bit of challenge keeping clean when traveling, because only a few of the RV parks have washes, so it is handy when one does. The scenery between Smithers and Prince George gradually changed from snow-capped mountains to rolling hills. Despite cautions to watch for moose on many stretches of the road, we didn't see any. We decided to try out Beaumont Provincial Park on Fraser Lake. However, the roadway was too narrow to even try to back our trailer into a site. Fine for shorter trailers, but not for larger ones.

We pulled into the Kal Tire in Vanderhoef, because the tire that we had filled at Iskut was going low again. After finishing up with a logging truck, the technician took the tire off, found the leak, and had it back on in a short time. When he was done, he wished us a good trip. We said that we would be on our way once we had gone to the office to pay up. But, he said, there was no charge for fixing the leak. We were very pleasantly surprised. The last time we had a tire plugged, at least 10 years ago, it hadn't cost much, but there was a charge.

Once in Prince George, we turned south on 97 about 16 km to the Bee Lazee RV Park. We were able to get everything setup, including satellite, with one of the strongest signals we have found, and the steps. Summer is definitely here, with 30 degree weather, and bunches of young children around taking advantage of the swimming pool here.

We did some shopping in Prince George on Saturday. We stopped at Happy Trails RV to pick up a crank for the rear stabilizer jacks and some florescent bulbs. We went to Coles and found one of the BC Backroad Mapbooks, which we paid with a gift certificate Karen gave us for Christmas. Joan got a haircut. We picked up a new portable CD player (so we have music and radio when we don't have power), since the old one died when something fell on its cassette controls. And, finally, we bought a simple replacement camera.

Sunday morning, we went to John's Aunt Trudy's. She has a very nice condo in downtown Prince George, within walking distance of most things she needs. We tried to connect our laptops to the internet there so she could have a Skype conversation with Dad, but didn't have any luck. She treated us to a very nice lunch at Mr. Mike. Then we drove back to the trailer so she could see our accommodations. We were able to Skype with Dad from the trailer, and she was quite impressed with how it worked. She decided that she should have Skype setup on her machine, so we stopped at Walmart to pick up a webcam, went back to her place. After getting it setup, we Skyped with Dad again to make sure everything was working. We had a very enjoyable day with her.

When we returned to the campground, we went for a short dip in the swimming pool. This was the first day since we have been here that the pool has not been full of young children.

We had a campground day on Monday. We did some cleaning in the morning, and then went for a dip in the pool after lunch. Basically just taking it easy.

We took a trip to check out a couple of recreation areas on Tuesday. We drove a short distance back toward Smithers, then drove south down Blackwater Road. Our destination was Punchaw Lake Recreation Center. The first 24 km of the road was paved, although the first few km had a multitude of small pot holes. Once we got past a treatment center, the road changed to gravel. It was oiled or watered, at least, for the next 24 km. We encountered a small black bear on the road ahead. It took one look at us, and dashed into the bush. The road into the rec site was a bit rutted, and fairly narrow, so we didn't feel we would like to take the trailer down it. The truck had a thin layer of mud on its bottom half by the time we arrived. 

The lake was fairly shallow, with a bunch of lily pads floating near the boat launch. We ate lunch at one of the tables, and enjoyed basking in the sun for a while. We heard this hum or buzz near the truck, and noticed a hummingbird hovering around the truck. We tried to get a picture of it, but it did not sit long enough for us to get one. On the way back, we stopped at a smaller rec site at McKenzie Lake (this area was traveled by Alexander McKenzie during his explorations). The road into this site was very bumpy, and we could see why this rec site was labelled as a tenting only site (no Rvs) in the Backroads book. 

Carrying on, we stopped at West Lake Provincial Park. It is a popular park with a nice grassy area above a narrow fine gravel beach. There is a very wide and deep swimming area. We floated on our tubes for a while before heading back to town. We stopped at the first car wash we could find, to remove the layer of mud from the truck, and to wash out the wheel wells a bit before taking the truck to Kal Tire to swap the front and back tires. Again, we were pleasantly surprised that they did not charge us for this, which included a quick inspection.

We were planning on a trip to Fort George Canyon Provincial Park on Wednesday, which our map showed as being just a few km south down highway 97. However, when we did some research on the web, we found that to the only access was on the west side of the river, which would have meant driving back into Prince George, and back down the road to West Lake PP (where we were yesterday), and then hiking 5 km to the park and another 5 km back. Instead, we did some laundry and then checked out a rec area just east of us at Buckhorn Lake. Although only a short distance away, the road had a lot of washboard, and the campsite would have been awkward to get the trailer into. Additionally, there was a lot of broken glass and nails from boards people had burned in the fires. While we were there, a retired fellow drove in. He chatted with us for a few minutes about what type of RV would work best for him. Then, we drove into Prince George to pick up a few more groceries.

Thursday morning, while packing up the trailer, we noticed that the problem tire on the trailer was low again. We stopped at Kal Tire again, where they found that the tire was leaking all the way around, so was not repairable. They quickly replaced it with a new tire of the same type, which actually cost us less in BC than the previous one had cost in Ottawa. We headed east on Highway 16, and stopped about 30 km out to torque the truck tires, only to find out that the socket that works for the trailer is too small for the truck. So we headed back to Kal Tire again, to get the truck tires torqued, and while we were at it, since we had already put on about 60 km, the trailer tire as well. So back we headed onto the highway. About 150 km, just short of planned stop, the Little Lasalle Lake Recreation Area, we passed about 15 bicyclers heading east. When we got to the turnoff to the rec area, we noticed a sign, that the Jasper bicycle group was stopping here for the night. We parked the trailer along the edge of the highway, and walked the half km down to the campground. We checked with the people doing the bike tour to see how many sites they were taking, and then checked out the rest of the (many) sites. We found a couple that would work for us, while beating off hordes of mosquitoes. Of course the repellant was at the top of the hill in the truck. We walked back up the hill, sprayed some repellant on, and took the trailer down the hill.  We were able to manouver the trailer into one side of a double site, with the back window looking out over the little lake. This will be our first night so far in an unserviced free rec area. We spent a quiet evening, swatting the occasional mosquito that snuck in while we were getting in the trailer. 

No internet of course, so we can't post the blog on Thursday night, but we drove into McBride on Friday to pick up some more water, mosquito repellant (we were lulled into forgetting about it in the Prince George area), check e-mail, phone, etc.

Week ending July 12, 2012

Friday was a bit of a lazy day. We tried to adapt our satellite connection so we could connect outside instead of through a window. Unfortunately, the connector was the wrong size. The internal connections are smaller than the cables running to the outside connection. After lunch, we did a quick test on our generator, figuring it would be better to do that where we have an alternate power source than waiting until we were in an unpowered site. Then we went for a short walk through the woods next to the RV park. The views weren't as good as the one from our trailer.

We had a bit of an issue on Saturday morning. While backing off far enough to see if all of the vents were closed on the trailer, we noticed that a brake line on the trailer was disconnected. Flashbacks of last June in Ottawa. The folks at Mountain Shadows RV Park kindly phoned Joe at Bandstra Trucking to see if he was around. We drove the few kilometers to his place just south of Iskut. After about an hour of working on the problem, he had fixed the brake line, found the fluid reservoir, filled it, bled the lines, and made sure that the brakes were operational again. He also topped up the air in one of the tires that was a bit low. We were back on the road again by 10:30, happy to have brakes on both the truck and trailer again, all for a very reasonable price.

The section of the Cassiar Highway between Iskut and Meziadin Lake Provincial Park showed hints of beautiful mountains, peaking through the clouds that hung over the valley. We encountered a nice little black bear that was walking along the ditch right next to the road, heading south like us. We got a quick picture from the driver's side, then drove forward a bit further, as the bear just kept walking along. Before we got another shot, he crossed the road behind the trailer, and started walking towards us on the other side. We got a few more decent pictures. We also saw another bear, further along, but it wasn't posing for us. 

Once we arrived at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park, we chose a site on the lakeshore. After about 20 minutes of frustration, bickering, and flaying away at the mosquitoes while trying to back the trailer into the site, we gave up, and backed into a site above the lake with much more elbow room for the truck, and still decent views of the lake. We have lost our touch, having too many pull-thrus. No power here, so this was our first live experience with the generator. Hours allowed are 7 to 10 AM and 5 to 8 PM. At 5 sharp, we went through the process of adding some gas, and starting the generator, after spending some time deciding where we could run it out of the drizzle, with adequate ventilation. We got it going with no problems, plugged in, and it almost immediately went off, due to an overload. We decided to switch from the electric heater to the propane furnace, since we are paying for the fuel one way or the other, and the furnace is probably more efficient anyway. We also switched the fridge to propane, then started cooking burgers in the electric frying pan, and everything was going fine, TV's on, computer plugged in. Then we turned on the hot water heater. Overload again. Switched that off, restarted the generator, and started cooking supper again. 10 minutes later, the generator stopped. Out of gas this time. Put in more gas than the last time. Hopefully that will get us through to 8 PM. We finished cooking and eating supper, and watched the last two thirds of the NASCAR race. Meanwhile, we smacked the occasional mosquito as it came near us. Mosquito season has definitely arrived.

We drove to Stewart along Bear River on Sunday morning. The views of the mountains, glaciers and waterfalls along this route are fantastic.

Once in Stewart, we walked along the estuary boardwalk, out towards Portland Canal, which connects to the Pacific Ocean.

We stopped at a recreation area on the way back, just past the temporary bridge that was put in place while they fix the washout that happened this spring. The rec area was a little lake where a couple were teaching their grandchildren to fish. They told us that someone had seen a large bear in the area.

It was drizzling on Monday morning when we packed up to head south, so we didn't even bother turning on the generator, had a breakfast of biscuits Joan made the day before, and were on the road by about 7:30. We saw fairly large black bear that was crossing the highway well ahead of us. We took too long trying to zoom in, and it dashed into the bush and disappeared. We stopped at the Gitwangak Battle Hill National Historic site, just north of highway 16. We walked down 108 steps to the valley floor, and then back up about half that to the top of little hill where a warrior chief had located 5 lodges which were defended by rolling large logs down the hill on attacking enemies from the coastal tribes. We were also able to get good views of the Seven Sisters mountain range. 

Just down the road, we stopped at a restaurant at the junction for coffee, which turned into brunch. Then we carried on to Smithers, where we refreshed our cash and grocery supplies. Once done there, we headed to the Fort Telkwa RV Park, 12 km east of Smithers, and set up overlooking the Bulkley River. A nice spot, but a little noisy, between the highway and the CNR line.  However, it didn't keep us awake, and after a while, you don't really notice the traffic.  The weather here is the warmest we have seen for weeks, quite different than the drizzle we left behind this morning. The wi-fi process here is interesting. Included in the price for the day, 75 mb of internet use are included. When you have used that up, your account is stopped for the day. This keeps people from downloading videos, and doing other bandwidth intensive stuff.  We found this worked okay, except for our weekly Skype talk.

Tuesday, we drove to the Twin Falls Recreation Area and had lunch at a picnic table with great views of the falls. 

Then we did Smithers Culture Crawl 2012 walking tour using a brochure we had picked up at a rest stop coming down the Cassiar. It told us about 4 'kit' houses that were bought from Eaton's and an American catalog company. We were surprised to see that these were significantly sized two story houses. We read about Swiss and Dutch emigration to the area, saw a display of information on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the town hall, and walked through the gardens at St. James Anglican Church. We checked and sent e-mail at the library. When we got back, we checked our camera, after replacing the batteries, and found that it appears to work okay except the display screen doesn't show anything. We will just have to hope that we have the camera pointed in the right direction, or start using the camera in the phone.

We had a quiet morning on Wednesday, doing laundry, and installing the satellite connector so we don't have to run the cable through the back window of the trailer. In the afternoon, we took our 'floaties' to Tyee Provincial Park, and enjoyed the sun and the water.

We drove to Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park on Thursday, and walked the short interpretive trail describing the First Nations in the area, and the fossil beds, where fossils of ancient plants, insects and fish were discovered. Then we drove out to Chapman Lake, a recreation area about 38 km from the highway through the Babine Range. It is a nice little site, with about 8 campsites on a decent size lake. A lady that had been there for about a week told us that there were leaches in the lake, so that , and the hungry insects, made our stay fairly short.

Week ending July 5, 2012

We went for a few short drives from Atlin on Friday. First we headed south down the lake to Warm Bay, Warm Springs and the Grotto, several beautiful little spots along the way. 

We also took a quick look at the several recreation areas along the way, free primitive campsites. Palmer Lake recreation area was the spot we chose to stop for lunch. It had a trailer occupying one of the two campsites. We spotted a small black bear looking at us from the side of the road. It quickly decided to head into the bush. A short distance down the road, a rabbit went scurrying across headed in the opposite direction.  We walked up McKee Creek, one of the old gold mining creeks in the area.

When we got back to town, we headed east, up Pine Creek, where the gold discovery was made here in 1898. Yes, Atlin is another gold town, and there is still some mining on Pine Creek. We stopped and got some pictures of Pine Falls. 

At the Atlin Airport, there were 20 to 30 small planes parked along both sides of an old runway. Apparently there is a 'fly-in' this weekend, with about 50 to 60 planes expected. We carried on to Surprise Lake, about 18 km from town. It was formed by damming Pine Creek for a small First Nations owned hydro plant that provides power for Atlin. We checked out the 6 campsite recreation area on the edge of Surprise Lake.

Saturday morning we walked around town. The Atlin Claim newspaper, which the campground operator provided to us, has a map of town, with the location of all the highlights, sort of a self-guided tour. We wandered pretty much all of the streets in town. Many of the buildings have little signs explaining their historical significance. Like most of the places along or near the Alaska Highway, there are several businesses for sale, or boarded up. However, there are still several places to eat, and a decent grocery / bakery. We picked up lottery tickets and some tasty date squares at the grocery. In the afternoon, we caught up some sleep, and then watched the NASCAR race and the football game (flipping back and forth).

We drove back up through the construction between Atlin and the Alaska Highway. It was a bit easier, because there was no work going on Sunday. We set up at the Yukon Motel RV Park in Teslin. Spots were a bit limited, as a caravan of RV's had booked most of the sites.We watched them all come in late afternoon, and then leave in a group on Monday morning. We were only able to get a 20 amp site, so we had to watch which appliances we ran together. We had to reset the breaker a few times.

After they left, we did a walk around Teslin, following a route in a brochure, marking the various buildings of significance. Around town, particularly near the George Johnston Museum, there were lots of interpretive signs giving the history of the area, from the Tlingit Nation, to the river boats that started from here to Whitehorse during the gold rush, and then to the Alaska Highway building. Unlike most of the towns on the highway, most of Teslin is hidden from view, so you don't realize most of it is there if you stay on the highway. Once again, another caravan arrived in the afternoon. We were hoping to get on the wi-fi, which is only available in the restaurant area, but the connections we got would not give us access to the internet. 

We woke up early on Tuesday morning, and beat the caravan out, not that we had planned to. We drove to Junction 37, almost, and stopped at the Baby Nugget RV Park. We passed the area of the road that had washed out just after we came through heading north. Before parking, we washed most of the gravel and dust off the trailer and truck. After relaxing for the afternoon, we enjoyed a dinner of fish and chips and a bison burger smothered in onions and gravy at the 'Wolf it Down' restaurant next door.

We moved on Wednesday morning, driving down the Cassiar Highway (37) from the Alaska Highway to Dease Lake BC. The first section of the highway was fairly narrow, and a bit rough. The next section wasn't too bad. The last stretch along Dease Lake had a fair number of broken sections. We saw some more wildlife along the way, but weren't able to get any good pictures. The first animal was a black bear. We may not have noticed it, but some folks heading north had stopped to watch it. The next animal was a fox. We saw it from a fair distance, so were able to stop and get a good look at it. It had caught a bird, which it was carrying down the highway. Along one of the marshy areas, Joan saw a moose, but we weren't able to find a spot to stop and walk back for some pictures. In another spot, we got a glimpse of another bear grazing in the ditch. The scenery along the route was varied. The northern section was like a roller coaster, but you couldn't see much through the trees. In this section, in northern BC,  there was a long stretch that had been burned not too long ago.  Here, we started to see bunches of tents in the bush along the way.  The mystery was solved when we went by some vehicles and tents next to the road with the sign 'Mushroom Buyer' out front.  There must have been at least 50 tents over a long stretch, with a couple of other buyers.   A new form of 'gold rush' in the north! 

Once we got through this section, which is part of the Yukon plateau, we entered the Cassiar Mountains. The road winds through the valleys with distinct peaks on all sides. In this area, we came to Jade City. 92% of the world's jade is extracted from 3 mines in the area. Most of it is sold to China, as it has exhausted its local supply of jade. We took a quick look through the store, but couldn't justify the prices for even the smallest pieces. If jade is your thing, they do have a lot of very nice items. The final stretch of the road wandered along the edge of Dease Lake with many views of the lake.

We moved on about 80 km. to the Mountain Shadows RV Park on Thursday morning, arriving just after 11:00. We have a nice spot here, looking down toward the end of lake that stretches a few km south. Off the end of the lake, a bald eagle was perched high in a pine tree, watching for some lunch. After lunch, we walked down to the lake. There were a few rainbow trout feeding on the bits flowing into the lake. After we checked out the boat dock, and watched a fellow raking weeds out of the shallow end of the lake, we walked along a path above the lake to a deeper point on the lake. We relaxed in the sun for a while, and watched a small shore bird hopping along looking for food.